Netanyahu: Jerusalem violence manipulated by Muslim Brotherhood

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has started a media campaign and diplomatic movement targeting Arab and Western countries regarding the ongoing violence in Jerusalem, accusing the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) of causing it, Israeli TV revealed yesterday.

According to Arabi21, Israeli TV said that Netanyahu is using sensitive issues regarding the MB in order to “demonise” the Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem.

“We know that Hamas and the Islamic Movement led by Raed Salah are behind the demonstrations in Jerusalem,” Israeli TV reported Netanyahu as saying, “and their aim is to destabilise the region by causing the situation in Jerusalem to explode.”

Israel has sent messaged to the Arab states in this regard, Israeli TV said, aiming at halting any diplomatic measures in the UN or any other international body.

The station said that the Palestinian Authority recognises the fact that the demonstrations are being led by the MB and supported by Qatar and Turkey; however, it keeps criticising Israel.

Study centres take part

Meanwhile, several Israeli study centres have been involved in the campaign against the demonstrations in the Palestinian city of Jerusalem.

In a report published on Monday, the Israeli rightist newspaper Makor Rishon considered the violence in Jerusalem to be a “conspiracy” manipulated by the MB in order to damage the relationship between Israel and the Arab states in the region.

The Jerusalem Centre for Society and State Studies, an Israeli body, said that the MB planned for the escalation in Jerusalem after they were ousted by Egypt’s Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi.

Another study centre said that like Israel, Saudi Arabia is concerned about the situation in Jerusalem. The centre claimed that this was the reason behind Saudi’s cancelation of $500 million which should have been paid to the Jerusalem Fund.

Israeli Radio also revealed yesterday that the Israeli municipality in Jerusalem had started to cut water supplies to the houses of Palestinian teens taking part in demonstrations in the city. It said that Israeli police forces submitted names of children and teens that had been arrested during the dispersal of the demonstrations to the municipality in order to identify their homes.